Bridge builders gird for action

It's midafternoon in the desert and Marine Capt. John Grimm has chosen the moment to address C Company of the 8th Engineer Support Battalion, the unit picked to build temporary bridges in an invasion of Iraq.

In the preceding 10 hours, in a convoy of dozens of trucks carrying everything from 15,000-pound bridging sections to razor wire to fuel and bulldozers, Grimm's company has readied itself and moved from the relative comfort of a base with running water, Bedouin-style tents and two hot meals a day to a more remote location so flat and abandoned that an oily haze on the horizon is the only geographic feature.

"We need to disperse our vehicles, set security and ... dig in," says Grimm, a Coram native.

The act of moving the company was no small task. There were delays, some confusion over the location of the new camp, an accident that severely damaged one of the trucks but did not result in injuries, and the substantial job of building a new base for more than 100 Marines. Work went on well after dark.

"You just have to be flexible," said Grimm, 26, who graduated from North Carolina State University. "You try to stay on an even keel. If you lose your temper, you can't make a rational decision."

The unit, based in North Carolina, has already been in Kuwait for two months, a period of extensive training and endless readying of vehicles and equipment, with the lingering chance that their equipment will never be used.

"People wonder why we can't just pick up and go," said Lt. Matt Ziegler of Somerset, Pa., the son of a funeral home director. "It's not that easy. It takes quite an effort."

Lance Cpl. Jose Amador, 20, put it this way: "It's the Marine Corps life - hurry up and wait. Adjust to the situation."

Lt. Col. Rick Nelson, 44, of North Carolina, the commanding officer of the 8th Engineer Support Battalion, said the unit, which cleared minefields in the first Gulf War, could have an even more important role in the conflict.

"Take a look out at the country of Iraq: there are crossings, culverts, canals, ditches and overpasses which require 'mobility sustenance,'" he said.

"Also, after the first Persian Gulf War, the Iraqis rebuilt their infrastructure, but to what standard? So we may be needed because their bridges can't support armored vehicles."

According to Nelson, bridging equipment has not been deployed in combat since the Korean War and has not been used in battle since World War II, when temporary bridges over the Rhine were key to the Allied push into Germany.

This deployment marks the widest use ever by the Marine Corps of temporary bridges, and the first time that the Marines have assembled an entire bridging battalion.

The relatively rapid assembly of the battalion put a strain on the unit.

Much of the training took place here in Kuwait. "I've gone from 10 to 120 Marines in about a month," said Chief Warrant Officer Raul Fiveash, 37, of New Mexico. "It's all happening a little too fast. Some aren't trained as much as they're supposed to be."

Gunnery Sgt. Ricky Stroud, an instructor for four years in the engineering school at Camp Lejeune, N.C., now with C Company of the 8th Engineer Support Battalion, said there are two kinds of bridges: those built on enormous folding metal floats, and girder bridges for narrow waterways and dry gaps.

For those over waterways, folding pontoons are slipped into the water from trucks and then pushed into position by boats, which the unit transports on the backs of trucks. The Marines began to use the devices in the past decade, Stroud said. Shorter elements can also be used to make rafts.

The bridges can be built in about a third of the time it takes to assemble older models because the individual sections do not require inflatable bladders to keep them afloat.

"It's kind of graceful, like a swan," said Chris Dobie, 42, a former Marine who works as a technical consultant to the bridge unit. "They hit the water and open up. The weight of them unfolds them."

According to Stroud, a bridge of just over 85 feet, including two ramps and four intermediate pieces, can be assembled in 20 minutes.
The second bridge carried by the battalion is British-made and designed to be assembled almost entirely by hand.

The device replaced the "Bailey Bridge," which was much more complicated. With this one, "you don't need anything but a truck to get it there," Stroud said.

Until now, the work remained in the mundane realm of preparation and sentry duty through the night. "Out here, around 1 to 3, it gets very cold, and from 3 to 6, it gets very, very cold," said Lance Cpl. Radu Isai, 20, of Fullerton, Calif. "We just talk about home."

LOAD-DATE: March 20, 2003